#jip the dog

[shakespearefreak]

Samantha and Nellie’s Northwoods Adventures

As I’ve already mentioned, last weekend Samantha, Nellie, Kaya, and I went to my family’s Cottage in Northern Wisconsin! 🌲 Samantha had visited the Cottage with me when I was little, but a lot had changed since she (and I) had last been there; and this was Nellie’s first time ever! Sam described it to her as being like a smaller version of Piney Point, where Nellie had joined her and Grandmary on vacation after being adopted into the family. I already shared photos of what Kaya did up North, so now here’s Sam and Nellie’s Northwoods adventures!

We left in the afternoon, but the drive to the Cottage is four hours(!), so it was already evening by the time we got there. In keeping with Cottage traditions, I rang the loud, clanging ship’s bell 🔔 that’s mounted on a pole near the door to announce our arrival to the forest and the few neighboring cabins. That first night, we really only had time to unpack and get settled before going to bed.

The girls were so excited they stayed up late into the night, snuggled into their sleeping bags, talking in low tones and giving the occasional hushed giggle.

Despite the late night, we awoke bright and early for the first full day.

Breakfast somehow tastes especially delicious when eaten in a cabin by a wide window with a lakeside view.

After breakfast, I was mainly occupied with taking the pictures of Kaya and swimming 🏊, so the two girls were left to their own devices for most of the day, but Nellie did join my mother, stepfather, and me on the pier later on.

Nellie stood on the pier, staring out at the bright blue sky over the deeper blue of the waters.

We also discovered a perfectly doll-sized chair that matched the bigger ones, so of course I had to take advantage of that!

She relaxed in the chair in the warm early evening sunlight, listening to the waves lap at the wooden planks.

The next day, I was so exhausted that I ended up sleeping into the early afternoon, and by the time I woke up the sunshine had been replaced by a wet, cloudy sky. Samantha passed the time painting 🎨 on the deck (Virginia had kindly allowed her to borrow her paints and easel) until it began raining 🌧️ in earnest.

The gray day was a little disheartening, but Samantha made the best of it with Virginia’s borrowed paint set (though she did have to duck inside with the painting still unfinished when the occasional light spotting of rain turned into a regular drizzle).

After it began to pour, we went back inside and made popcorn 🍿 before retiring early.

The last day seemed to sneak up on us before we knew it. It started out gray again, but Sam and Nellie decided to take a walk with Jip 🐕 anyway, and while they were playing ball the sun came out again.

Jip was full of energy, so they decided to tire him out with a game of keep-away. Sam and Nellie tossed the bright red ball back and forth, Jip running back and forth between them, following the ball’s progress and occasionally leaping up in an attempt to grab it out of the air. Finally he caught it and paraded around proudly with it, then sat down to chew it and refused to relinquish it for several minutes until he was convinced the game was over.

After a short rest, it was time to head back inside to pack up again and begin the long journey back home.

The sun had come out during the game, and both girls were feeling hot and winded. They sat down on a fallen birch to catch their breath, grateful that they’d brought along a big jug of iced tea*. Jip already seemed energetic again, wagging his stubby tail and sniffing eagerly through the dead leaves. “I think he tired us out!” Nellie laughed, a little breathlessly. They sat and drank their tea, listening to the sounds of nature (and the occasional sharp bark from Jip when he saw a squirrel), reluctant to leave… but eventually they went back inside to pack and say goodbye to the Cottage. 

“I hope we can come back next year!” Nellie remarked, watching the Cottage dwindle down the road behind them, before disappearing around a bend and being lost to sight.

THE END

*I realized after taking the photo that their mugs of tea look kind of like beer steins, but I promise they’re not 😅

BONUS:

(In case anyone was wondering what Samantha's finished painting looked like!)

I’m thinking of covering my poor attempt at a birch tree in the lower left with something else… a pine tree perhaps, or maybe just re-painting the trunk so it’s brown instead of white with black marks… though then I’d have to make it much darker than the surrounding dirt, to make it stand out. I’m open to suggestions!

[critter-creature-or-beast]

Submitted for classification by @the-flowing-river

"What is my dog, Jip?"

[britneyshakespeare]

Accordingly, I told Agnes about my declaration of poverty, about the cookery book, the housekeeping accounts, and all the rest of it. "Oh, Trotwood!" she remonstrated, with a smile. "Just your old headlong way! You might have been in earnest in striving to get on in the world, without being so very sudden with a timid, loving, inexperienced girl. Poor Dora!" I never heard such sweet forbearing kindness expressed in a voice, as she expressed in making this reply. It was as if I had seen her admiringly and tenderly embracing Dora, and tacitly reproving me, by her considerate protection, for my hot haste in fluttering that little heart. It was as if I had seen Dora, in all her fascinating artlessness, caressing Agnes, and thanking her, and coaxingly appealing against me, and loving me with all her childish innocence. I felt so grateful to Agnes, and admired her so! I saw those two together, in a bright perspective, such well-associated friends, each adorning the other so much!

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Chapter 39: Wickfield and Heep

[chaotictomtom]

NICE ONE BRUVA!!!!!!

human traffic (1999)

[visualtaehyun]

I already spent way too much time watching and dissecting this episode so let's get right into it!

Disclaimer: not a native Thai speaker, still learning 🙏

Title

คลื่นกลางมหาสมุทร /khluen glaang mahasamut/ = waves/ripples amidst the ocean

-> "Echoes Across the Endless Blue" sounds super pretty and, most obviously, it seems to refer to Rak's panic attack underwater

Writer Tongrak

Love that Mut's shirt matches the tassel curtains in Rak's room lol

I copied down the entirety of the 4 articles Mut found but I don't have time right now to translate them so let's just breeze over the last two right now-

The articles mention two of Rak's novels (irl they're MAME's obviously): - "The Boy Next World คนละกาลเวลา" aka the new BossNoeul series - "Love Director วาดรักกํากับใจ" aka the novels Prapai's uncle Frost is from

ViMook

their pronoun use: มุก /Mook/ -> พี่(วี) /phi (Vi)/ and พี่ /phi/ -> มุก /Mook/

A->B is to be understood as I->you, meaning Mook calls herself by name and Vi does so vice versa, and, because Vi is the older one, they both refer to her as พี่ /phi/

The name of Vi's script is so on the nose omg

กลพรางนางมารร้าย /gon phraang naang maan raai/ "The Devil's Tricks"

-> นาง /naang/ specifically means a woman, นางมารร้าย /naang maan raai/ can mean villainess, evil woman, demoness, ...think femme fatale, too. For reference, "The Devil Wears Prada" is called นางมารสวมปราด้า /naang maan suam Prada/ in Thai.

-> as far as I can make out, the cover says 'written and directed by วรรณรัตน์ รัตนเดช' (no clue what it says below his name) - that's Love Sea's art director:

And because I just about lost it at Vi leaving her underwear out for Mook to clean, here's our dearest pearl holding Vi's lacy undies hehehe

I keep calling her pearl btw because that's what her name means- ไข่มุก /khai mook/ = pearl

รางวัลสำหรับเลขาคนเก่ง /raang-wan sam-rap leh-khaa khohn geng/

-> เก่ง /geng/ is the same compliment Mut gives Rak later:

...and what got fittingly translated as "Quite the biter":

กัดเก่งเลยน่ะ /gat geng loei na/

ชาติที่แล้วเป็นหมารึไง /chaat thee laaeo bpen maa reu ngai?/ = Were you a dog in your previous life or what?

More from and about Rak

This translation took me out, it's so fitting and funny:

เสร็จแล้ว ปล่อยแล้ว ก็กลับไปได้แล้ว /set laaeo, bplaawy laaeo - gaaw glap bpai dai laaeo/ = Finished/Came, released - then you can go back now.

ก็ใครจีบพี่สุดหล่อติดน่ะ /gaaw khrai jip phi soot laaw dtit na/ = Well, whoever's gonna succeed in pursuing that handsome Phi (Rak).

พาไปกินข้าวหน่อย /phaa bpai gin khaao naawy/ -> หน่อย /naawy/ softens the request which kinda surprised me after he came in so fiercely with the possessiveness (that he immediately denied lol)

She calls herself พี่ /phi/ as in Rak's literal older sister! The credits tell me her name is ของขวัญ /khaawng khwan/ = gift, present

[murphy-kitt]

Ectoberhaunt Day 1 - Past

Word Count: 1822

AO3

When Jack and Maddie unexpectedly request Alicia take in Danny, she can’t help but worry that there are deeper problems at hand.

Tags: Angst, Slight Injury

—

It was an intervention, they had said. Some time away for him to deal with what had happened. The quiet din of the farm would be better for Danny than the constant clamour of Amity Park.

What has happened, Alicia still doesn’t know.

She sits at the kitchen table, the dogs circling around her feet. It’s only ever been her, Jip and Alec for a while now, at least since her last divorce.

And now Danny should be arriving soon. Of course, she loves her niece and nephew, even if it has been sometime since she’s seen them. The boy, she thinks, was obsessed with space. The girl, intuitive and a bit too in tune with the human psyche.

Alicia sips her coffee, pondering over what could be so bad it forced Maddie to take such a drastic decision. Amity Park and Spittoon aren’t exactly a stones throw away from one another.

There had been an accident of sorts, she remembers. Something to do with that ridiculous laboratory. An electric shock, was it?

But that was nearly a year ago. And Maddie hadn’t sounded half as concerned on the phone about that incident than the current predicament.

Then, she’s taken out of her thoughts by Jip whining, a high pitch that makes her ears ring.

‘Shush, you.’ Alicia scolds, chair scraping the tiled floor as she gets up. The collie dog paces to the door, the sputtering of an engine dying outside.

They’re here. Alicia’s not sure what to expect as she grabs the door handle, yanking it down with extra strength. She’s been too busy to fix that—but now it’ll be backlogged even more with Danny’s arrival.

It’s hard to miss the large tank currently imposing over her tiny house, gadgets arraying green and silver on the roof that she has no clue of.

“Alicia!” That’s the sound of one Jack Fenton leaping out the side of the..thing. Alicia doesn’t miss the clear bags under his eyes, the strain to his voice.

“Do I have to be here?” A sarcastic tone.

Danny is tiny. Alicia nearly topples over in shock, her hand finding the doorframe and feet cementing to the porch stairs. Jip whines, perceptive to the change.

Last time she saw him, a good few years, her nephew had been chatty and incessant about space. He’d always been small, a given since he was born six weeks premature. But this..it’s different.

He’s sickly. Frail. There’s a gauntness to his cheeks, a sharp edge where he was once rounded out with baby fat. His limbs are toothpicks, white needles marred with blemishes and blotches. A bandage twines around Danny’s left arm, clinging on as if it’s holding him together.

His clothes are filthy, torn and stained with green. She remembers Maddie mentioning...ectoplasm, perhaps? But after the accident, she thought Danny would have avoided the lab. At least that’s where she assumes it came from.

“Come in.” Alicia barely stutters through, shoving the door open. “Maddie not with you?”

“No.” Jack's demeanour instantly darkens. He turns to Danny, “I’ll get your things out the car, son. You go in.”

“Fine.” Danny folds his arms, scowling.

Great. Seemingly Danny’s sarcastic phase has set in, just another thing to deal with during this enigmatic stay. How long he’s staying for, Alicia doesn’t actually know. The weekend? Weeks? The whole summer?

They both enter the house, Danny begrudgingly following behind her like a lost puppy. As does Jack, two small duffel bags in his hands.

“Right son, I’ll leave you to it then?” Jack says, moving forward towards Danny, arms outstretched.

“Yeah, dad.” Danny takes a step back, hands in his pockets. Jack falters, the smile disappearing from his face.

“Oh—sorry, Danny. Your arm. I’ll—“

And with that, Jack vacates her small cabin, leaving only her and Danny standing around the table. He’s hunched over, like he’s being scrutinised. Or would rather be anywhere else.

What the hell happened?

—

“You’re in on it, aren’t you?” Is the first thing Danny says to her the next morning.

“What?” Is the only way she can respond as she pours milk into her cereal. Danny regards her, his glare icy.

She’d barely slept last night, ruminating over what could’ve happened. A fall out between Danny and his parents? Had he broken something in the lab, gotten injured?

“Why else would Mom and Dad send me here?” Danny folds his arms, looking down into his bowl of uneaten cereal.

“I don’t know. They thought you needed a break? They’re concerned about you.” An honest answer.

“They haven’t been concerned about me. Care more about the ghosts.” He shoves his chin into his hands, voice muffled so Alicia can barely hear.

She won’t deny Jack and Maddie are…absent as best. But she knows they do care deeply about Danny.

“Is this what it’s about? They’re focused more on their work than caring for you and Jazz?” Alicia asks, feeling the dread pool in her stomach. “Something happened to you and you wished they’d notice?”

Suddenly, the kitchen drops a few degrees.

Although the fire is blasting in the next room over, Jip curled beside, the hairs prick on Alicia’s neck. Tension curdles in her stomach as she watches Danny tense his fists into his hair. Toothpick arms, trembling.

He’s not the same as he was a few years ago. Sure, teenagers are meant to grow, become snappy, but this isn’t sarcasm or wit.

It’s fear.

“Danny,” she reaches forward, despite the trembling in her hands.

His eyes snap up. Icy. Once kind, sweet. Now filled with terror.

“Nothing—nothing happened to me!” He stammers out.

Which means something did.

“I don’t. It wasn’t meant to come out like this. Mom and Dad, they saw me, and I didn’t think. Not all of it, but they saw something. And now Mom won’t talk to me, and now they’re suspicious.”

“Suspicious?” Alicia hesitates. Danny has a secret of sorts? That he’s scared of Jack and Maddie knowing. That Maddie refuses to talk to him.

“It was this.” Danny gives her a fleeting look before gesturing to his shoulder, where the bloody bandage is still wrapped. On closer inspection she sees that there’s flecks of green in the bandage. Ectoplasm?

“You got into the lab? That ectoplasm stuff?”

“No, Aunt Alicia.I—I bleed it.”

What. Alicia’s ears ring as she shoves her chair back, the shrill noise echoing throughout the room. Rounding the table, she goes to Danny’s left.

“Can I?” She asks cautiously, gesturing to his arm.

The hesitance is clear in his posture, shoulders hunched by his ears, eyes wide, unblinking (were they always that blue?).

“You really don’t know, do you?” Danny mumbles, realisation seeping into his gaze. “They didn’t bring me here because they wanted you to get info.”

“You think they’d do that?” Alicia responds, trying to repress how appalled she is, both at his parents and his arm. The injury is far unlike anything she’s even seen, and living on a farm brings a range of afflictions.

Green bruises mottle most of the skin, from dark to lighter patches. It’s a burn of sorts, a mixture of green and red like a dated Christmas store.

“How’d you get this?” Alicia asks, as Danny tenses uncomfortably.

“Does it matter?” he deflects. “I’ve been like this for ages now.”

Ah. The green blood. Bleeding ectoplasm. What was a while back?

“Was it..was it your lab accident?” Alicia tenses. Now that she thinks, she can remember the phone call from Maddie, excitedly telling her about their ‘portal’, their life’s work. And then an extra tidbit about Danny having an electric shock, but that he was okay and seemed fine.

What if it had been worse, and Danny hadn’t told his parents?

“What if it was? What if it..changed me?”

”Look, kid. Trauma from that accident doesn’t mean you’ve changed, you’re still the sa—“

”It’s not like that, okay?! Sure, with the amount of psychoanalysis Jazz does on me, we know the accident traumatised me. But it’s not that.” Danny interrupts, twisting on his chair to face her.

Alicia pauses. Lets herself take a step back from Danny and sit back down, breakfast forgotten.

It’s clear this is serious. Alicia hates to think of the implications. Danny was in an accident much more serious than first thought. And not only he his hid it from his parents in fear of them finding out whatever it’s done, but they’ve never noticed.

How long ago was that accident? A year? And her sister and Jack had never noticed anything wrong until whatever had injured Danny had come to their attention?

”Okay, kid. I get it.” She puts her hands up in a placating gesture. If the accident was seriously altering, then it’s not something she wants to go interrogating him about. “How’d you get your wound?”

“What?!” The switch of topic has Danny sputtering, looking down at his arm. He regards her with narrowed eyes. “Why’d you want to know?”

”So I can re-bandage it. Is it a burn?” She gets up from the chair, opening the drawer besides the sink. Suddenly, Jip and Alec burst through the kitchen door, tails wagging.

”It’s not treats, you silly pair!” The dogs curiously nudge at Alicia’s legs as she approaches back to Danny, bandages and burn cream at hand.

”Yeah, a burn. Ectogun.”

”An ectogun. Isn’t that your pa—?”

”Yup.” Danny licks his lips, looking away, as if he’s considering something. “They didn’t know it was me.”

What?

”They shot you?!” This time, there’s no hiding the horror in her voice. This has to be a mistake. An awful, horrible accident. Maddie and Jack wouldn’t shoot Danny deliberately, they couldn’t. Wouldn’t.

Maybe they hadn’t seen him? Out ghost hunting and he’d got caught in the fray?

”Yeah…” Danny replies. “The accident, when I say it changed me..I look different?”

”What, you’re a ghost?” Alicia scoffs. Maybe it’s her mind trying to find reprieve in the absolute bombshell, to try and find humour.

Then she sees the trembling hands, the frozen posture. Temperature of the room dropped. Jip and Alec pacing, ears pinned back, needle-focused on Danny.

”You—y’know that one Mom goes on about?” Danny’s breath hitches, his eyes bleary, “The one she’s got a real hatred for, the one she wants to dissect?”

She can’t forget. Phantom. News channels have never reached Spittoon with ghost news, but there’s no need, since Maddie likes to update her.

How Phantom is evil, the terror of Amity Park. Yet how he’s different, somehow more complex and never sticks to a routine like the others—how she’d love to capture him.

’That ghost terrorises us, Lise. The day me and Jack capture it, imagine the breakthroughs we’d have. The research potential!”

Phantom, the ghost Maddie wants to experiment on.

Phantom, the ghost that is Danny.

Alicia feels sick.

[thedeviltohisangel]

Meatball idea: Cass walks him when Demarco is busy/flying as a happy distraction and when Bucky is around, he’ll join them and it feels so domestic but neither want to say anything

Domestic Cass and John make me scream!!!!

I like that Cass is such a girl in that she sees a fluffy dog and just immediately thinks he is the most handsome thing on the planet. She sneaks him treats and maybe brushes him once in a while and always is willing to throw the tennis ball around.

Was literally just discussing with @gloryofroses19 that she is his legal guardian when Demarco goes down and takes care of him until they can be properly united (which the show jipped us of!). (Also feel free to join our discussion in what kind of dog John/Cass should get themselves)

But long dog walks around base as a couple my heart!!!! They hold hands and chat about their days and wave to people they see. They stop in town and John buys them ice cream and Cass lets Meatball get his own little cup and she feels so at home. Like John is becoming family. And Meatball proudly carries home a stick and whines when John says goodnight and Cass just says don't worry i feel that way too.

[haveamagicalday]

Duel of the American Girl Dolls: Pets (Round 1)

This is a poll in the Duel of the American Girl Dolls. Other polls can be found here

[toofasttoocool-reborn]

DMU:An address to the people of Japan by eternal prime minister Celestia Ludenberg

"My dear, loyal subject,

Let's cut the useless democratic babble and cut right into the important part:I am Celestia Lundenberg,also known as Taeko Yasuhiro,and I will talk for my party,the JIP who I am both the Leader and main shareholder of!I firstly want to thank the people of Japan who voted for us during the legislative! With more than 450 seats belonging to our glorius party there was no doubt that old...I mean our dear Emperor would choose me!Of course everyone knows that kind of power is useless to making our Nation the top dog in Asia again,I herebly declare myself as Eternal Prime Minister of Oyashima!"

The journalists were all silent, facing such a bombastic and confident declaration,the attention of Celestia was always clear:To put back this country back in the center of Asian politics and economics,after numerous actions in the region of Osaka who secured herself a stronghold,she took the lead of the party, assuring, thanks to multiple strong-handed tactics, control over the most rural regions of Japan the goth bimbo victory made no doubt,but this kind of speech weren't seen since world war 2 .Given the incompetent, because he was chosen before hands by the most trusting of ally, useless pen pusher, no resistance was made and the declaration was soon heard on all television,all computer,all radios around Japan.

[verecunda]

I'm just getting over this godawful flu that's been going around, and today was my first day out walking the dog in nearly two weeks. Possibly a bit over-ambitious on my part. I got stuck in some mud and didn't have the energy to get myself free. Ended up having to step out of one of my wellies, find a slightly less muddy spot to put my foot (socks instantly soaked!), and use my stick to lever the welly out of the mud. Meanwhile Jip, noticing that here is something decidedly not part of the usual routine, gets all excited and starts racing mad circles around me.

All I can say is, thank God there was no one else around. X'D

[historicalfictionsims]

Gramercy Park was a pretty space that separated the girls from the hustle and bustle of the city. They strolled around, with Agatha walking Jip and Samantha pushing Agnes’s doll in the pram. When they reached the fountain at the center of the park, Jip began to bark at the decorations. He pulled at the leash and even when Agatha tried to pick him up and turn him away, he kept on barking. Agnes refused to hold him, and the twins got into an argument about whose idea it was to bring him in the first place.

Agatha decided that Jip could ride in the pram so that no one would have to hold him. Agnes thought it was a great idea, but Samantha disagreed. They promised Cornelia that they would keep Jip on the leash. Agatha explained that Jip would still be on the leash, but none of them would have to be.

Jip stayed in the pram for only a second and then managed to disentangle the leash from the handle. Before anyone could stop him, he dashed out of the park through the iron bars of the fence. Once they had time to process what had happened, the girls found themselves chasing the little dog all over the city. Every now and then Agatha would spot him in the crowded streets, but he kept evading their reach.

It was as if Jip knew exactly where he was headed. The girls caught sight of banners and signs, and realized that they were at Madison Square Park. They tried to catch his attention but he ran up to the stage, where a surprised Cornelia was about to speak! The twins quietly told Samantha that they had overheard Cornelia and Gard talking about the meeting. Gard had advised Cornelia not to attend for fear of offending Grandmary. But Cornelia replied that she would make her own decisions and not care what others thought of her.

Once the speeches were over, the twins wanted to leave and pretend that Jip had come over on his own. But Samantha knew that they needed to apologize for breaking Cornelia’s trust. She had never seen her aunt look so angry before.

It was time to meet Grandmary at Tyson’s ice cream parlor. By their disheveled appearances it was clear that something had happened, and the girls held their breath as Cornelia looked Grandmary in the eyes and confessed to being at the suffragist meeting.

What no one expected was for Grandmary to admit that she had been at the meeting as well. When she saw Cornelia up on stage, she figured that she should at least listen to what the women had to say. The speeches she heard were all about how women deserved the right to speak up for what they believed in, which was a point that Grandmary agreed with wholeheartedly. If granting suffrage would help women’s voices be heard, then perhaps women should have the right to vote.

With the air cleared, Cornelia announced that it was time for ice cream. Grandmary asked Samantha if she would like her usual favorite, peppermint, or if she’d like to try a new flavor. Samantha already knew the answer. When it came to ice cream, the old ways were still the best ways. She would have peppermint.

[shakespearefreak]

Welcome Kaya!

So Kaya actually arrived last Wednesday (May 29th), but I didn’t have time to free her from her box until the Wednesday after that! (And then of course it took me a few more days to edit the photos and write the accompanying story.) When I finally did, one of the first things I did was give her a few gifts I’d gotten during the long months I waited for her: her Meet Accessories, her doll, and Tatlo! 🐕 She was very happy. I also introduced her to my roommate; I explained to her that he’s basically my brother, even though we’re not actually related, which she of course understood because of her own relationship with her adopted sister Speaking Rain. Finally, she met the rest of her new roommates! She and Makena admired each other’s hair, Jip and Tatlo made friends, and Kaya and Josefina bonded over their dolls.

NOTE: I chose to use the Nez Perce spelling for words/phrases in the Nimíipuu language, rather than the anglicized phonetic spelling American Girl uses in the books. Also, I do not speak Nez Perce myself, so please forgive (and more importantly, correct!) any errors.

Virginia looked up from the canvas of her latest painting. “Everyone!” she called. “I think she’s here!”

Everyone crowded around Kaya, chattering excitedly. 

(Samantha, Nellie, and Virginia were there too, I just couldn’t easily fit them all in one photo!)

“Ta’c léehyen,” Kaya said, with a slightly shy smile. “I am grateful to stay with you. I hope we will be friends.” She tried not to stare, taking in all the new faces and the wide range of clothing styles.

“I love your braids!” Makena said, admiring Kaya’s sleek black hair and abalone shell hair ornaments.

“Qe’ci’yew’yew’! I like yours, too!”

“Pardon me,” Nellie said hesitantly, pointing to Tatlo, “but is that… a wolf?” She tried not to sound as anxious as she felt.

Kaya laughed lightly. “Weet’u, this is my dog, Tatlo! He is very friendly.”

Before anything else could be said, Jip ran up to the much-larger Tatlo, his stubby tail wagging furiously!

“Jip, maybe that’s not a good idea…” Samantha cautioned, but it was too late. Jip was already jumping up on Tatlo excitedly, too happy to have another dog to play with to contain himself. Nellie gasped.

But as it turned out, there was no reason to worry. Tatlo seemed just as pleased to meet Jip as Jip was to meet him! The girls giggled as the two greeted each other in traditional doggy fashion. In a few minutes, you might have thought they’d known each other their entire canine lives.

“Oh, is that your doll?” Kaya asked Josefina, gesturing to Niña. 

Josefina nodded. “My mother made her for me and my sisters a long time ago. She was meant to be passed down every Christmas, from eldest to youngest, but after Mamá died, my sister Clara hid her so she could keep her. But in the end, Clara gave Niña to me, and even made her this beautiful dress!”

Kaya nodded soberly. “I think your mother would be glad your sister did that.” Then she brightened. “I have a doll too! Would you like to see her?”

“Sí!” said Josefina. Kaya brought out her own doll.

“She is very special to me,” Kaya explained. “She used to belong to my sister, Speaking Rain. When Speaking Rain was lost to my family, Tatlo found her again using this doll’s scent.”

“So both of our dolls are important to us because they brought us closer to our sisters, and to people we had lost,” Josefina said thoughtfully.

Kaya considered this for a moment, then smiled. “’Eehé! That’s exactly right!”

[animals-in-old-films]

A Japanese spaniel dog as Jip in David Copperfield (1935)

[britneyshakespeare]

Chapter 53: Another Retrospect I did cry

[timetravelingcourtney]

My tree is decorated with some historical gals and their little lovvies.

Ps: Sam can’t hang on the tree with Jip because Jip is her aunt and uncle’s dog, in case you were wondering.

[harrison-abbott]

I heard him through the walls. Talking to himself. At first I thought he was just getting irate at the videogame, the way boys do. Except Kurt was a man, and it didn’t sound like he was gaming. These odd, ejaculative expressions – though I couldn’t understand what he was saying. He was doing it again one afternoon: so I thought I’d go in and speak to him about it. He was sitting at his desk watching a movie. “Who are you talking to?” I said. Kurt blinked. “I’m just talking to the dog.” He pointed to Jip – the collie – who was asleep on the bed. “But you’ve been talking to the dog for like half an hour …” I said. And Kurt just laughed. Because he’d been caught out. And cos he didn’t care. [I’m not the only one who’s always thought Kurt was slightly crazy; and I should know anyway, being his brother.]